* Inner City Jer [USA] lem was written during the week of the “Million Man March: A Day of Atonement and Reconciliation,” held in Washington D. C., on October 16, 1995. Israel dedicated the piece to his mentor and former professor, Dr. Maulana Karenga of California State University, Long Beach, and the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies, Los Angeles. On the evening before Dr. Karenga’s keynote address, Israel—-during a surprise birthday party given for him by Selina Dandrige and Dark Watcher’s Inc., (a benevolent organization dedicated to tracking Ku Klux Klan activity and helping the victims of racial violence) at 77 Randolph Place, N. W. Washington—-credited Dr. Karenga’s scholarly articles and books, including his Introduction to Black Studies (1982), Kwanza: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, and Selections from the Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt, for aiding him in grasping a working acumen of the indefinable social dynamics and subtle psychological crosscurrents undergirding the African Diaspora of the milieu.
1. See Deuteronomy 30:1-20.
2. See Proverb 4:1-27.
3. See Psalm 99: 1-9.